Education Blog

Texas Hispanic students lag in “Nation’s Report Card”

Students at the predominantly Hispanic Adelfa Callejo Elementary School in Dallas wait to attend a ceremony in April.

AUSTIN – Hispanic students in Texas, now more than half of public school enrollment, are falling further behind in reading skills while holding their own in math, according to test results from the “Nation’s Report Card” released Thursday.

The setbacks in reading for Hispanics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress portend problems for Texas, which at one time put special emphasis on reading over all other subjects in the public schools.

New NAEP results show that fourth grade reading scores for Hispanic children have dropped four points from the last test two years ago, while eighth grade scores remained relatively flat.

Texas Hispanic fourth graders tied for 33rd when compared with Hispanics in other states and the District of Columbia, while eighth graders ranked 28th.

It was a different story in math as Hispanic third graders tied for 10th among their peers and eighth graders tied for third.

Overall, results for Texas students were similar to those two years ago. Scores were up slightly in fourth grade math and eighth grade reading and down slightly in fourth grade reading and eighth grade math.

Nationwide, scores improved slightly in both subjects for both grades.Texas students were just above the national average score in math but trailed the nation in reading.

The highest overall ranking for Texas was in eighth grade math, where students tied for 15th. The worst showing was in fourth grade reading, where Texas students tied for 38th. Eighth graders tied for 37th in reading.

Texas scores suffered because of the high proportion of minority students, who historically have not done as well on achievement tests as white students.

Sizable performance gaps between white and minority students in the state actually increased slightly from two years ago.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said it is “very troubling” that achievement gaps between white and minority students across the U.S. failed to narrow between the last NAEP in 2011 and this year’s test.

“The last couple of years have been tough,” he said referring to funding cuts for public education in a large number of states. In many cases, teachers were laid off to offset the reductions.

Duncan said one solution to the achievement gap is to increase investment in early childhood education, particularly for lower income minority students.

“The only way to significantly close the achievement gap is to stop playing catch-up (after students start regular classes) and increase access to early childhood education,” he said. “Why don’t we try fixing the problem before it begins.”

Other results from Texas showed that white students ranked among the top 10 states in math and reading when compared with other white students. In math, black fourth graders tied for fourth in their peer group in math and eighth graders tied for third.

The NAEP was administered to a nationally representative sample of more than 376,000 fourth graders and 341,000 eighth graders in all states and the District of Columbia earlier this year. The exam is administered every two years by the National Center for Education Statistics.

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